move screen recorder folder to external drive (including temp folder)

Question

vdanee Author

Level 1

4 points

move screen recorder folder to external drive (including temp folder)

Hi,

I tried to move everything to external drive for my screen record videos. Here is what I did:

I start screen recording by pressing shift+command+5
then in options i set "other location" and point to my external drive

So far so good, my recordings go to the external drive. I thought this was done successfully.

Only after one failed recording I found out the following:

there is still a temporary folder on my mac that will save the recordings first, then it moves to the external drive
I wanna extend the life of my ssd, that's why I started this whole thing
I created a symlink it points to my external driver
however, my recordings now stop after 2-3 seconds

Is this because I cannot move that temporary screenrecordings folder to external drive? or could be something else?

Thanks all

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 13.1

Posted on Jan 22, 2023 04:35 AM

Reply

Answer 1

vdanee Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 22, 2023 06:00 AM in response to Randall_2023

Yes, I'm the only user. The symlink actually has no "permissions" tab if I press command+I. But my external drive has read and write.

Another think I just thought of is that my external drive is encrypted. It is unlocked at the moment, but maybe that causes the issue for the screen recorder app?

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 22, 2023 08:11 AM in response to vdanee

I have had issues in the past with recordings stopping / not saving unexpectedly whenever I tried a "save to" location other than "desktop". since I've started using "desktop", I haven't had any issues.

and I do understand that you are concerned with "wear and tear" on your local drive. from the research I have done over the last couple of years as SSDs have become more relevant, the Mac will be well beyond it's usefulness before the SSD fails.

but another thing you might want to consider would be to get a "sacrificial" external SSD, install macOS on it, and use that for your recording purposes. I needed to go that route with an older macOS on a Samsung T7 SSD because I have a video capture device which the manufacturer has ended their support for it.

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 22, 2023 05:14 AM in response to vdanee

Did you check to see if both the symbolic link as well as the external drive folder permissions have full or read and write permissions?

Reply

Answer 4

vdanee Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 22, 2023 11:03 AM in response to jeffreythefrog

ok, that is a good idea if everything else fails :)

Reply

move screen recorder folder to external drive (including temp folder)

Similar questions